Twitter Doesn't Want Developers Using "Tweet" in Apps

Is Twitter becoming Apple? The micro-blogging service has apparently begun confronting third-party developers for the use of the word "Tweet" in the names of their apps--a word for which Twitter filed copyright, back in April of this year.

Is Twitter becoming Apple? The micro-blogging service has apparently begun confronting third-party developers for the use of the word "Tweet" in the names of their apps--a word for which Twitter filed a trademark, back in April of this year. The note reads, in part,

Twitter, Inc is uncomfortable with the use of the word Tweet (our trademark) and the similarity in your UI and our own. How can we go about having you change your UI to better differentiate your offering from our own?

As TechCrunch helpfully points out, there are a number of existing apps that already use the word in their name, like TweetDeck, TweetMeme, Tweetie, BackTweets, Tweetboard--just to name a few.

No word on whether the company has begun silencing song birds as well.

Brian Heater has worked at a number of tech pubs, including Engadget, Laptop, and PCMag (where he served as Senior Editor). Most recently, he was as the Managing Editor of TechTimes.com. His writing has appeared in Spin, Wired, Playboy, Entertainment Weekly, The Onion, Boing Boing, Publishers Weekly, The Daily Beast and various other publications. He hosts the weekly Boing Boing interview podcast RiYL, has appeared as a regular NPR contributor and shares his Queens apartment with a rabbit named Lucy.
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